A message from South African coach Rodney Willemberg to his batsmen halfway through their log-jammed chase for England's 143, to start scoring or get out, had the desired effect.

South Africa pulled off the most important win of the CricInfo Women's World Cup to date when coming back from the dead to beat England by five wickets at BIL Oval today.

It was a must-win game for South Africa which had been beaten by India two days earlier and which was out of the tournament if it lost to England.

It has kept its hopes alive and Willemberg knows that if India can beat England on Monday, then South Africa can go close to reaching the semi-finals.

After an outstanding fielding effort, South Africa dismissed England in the 48th over of its innings for 143 then after 26 overs South Africa was in danger of undoing all its hard work when seemingly unable to hit the ball off the square with the score at only 39/4.

"It was do-or-die for us," Willemberg said.

His main concern was with Daleen Terblanche who took 33 balls to get off the mark. The innings was in danger of becoming bogged down completely.

"I sent a message out to them to play the cricket they are capable of. They were too tentative against India and were doing the same here.

"And I said that if in five overs they were not getting runs on the board then they were to get themselves out."

The message finally got through and the arrival of Sunette Viljoen to bat with Terblanche got the scoreboard ticking over.

Viljoen, the 17-year-old schoolgirl, whose innings earned her the man of the match award, said she told Terblanche the coach's direction was to rotate the strike.

That was the basis of their innings and their 71-run stand which revived the South African hopes.

Terblanche started to hit out and was eventually out when leg before wicket to Lucy Pearson for 41 off 117 balls in the first over of her second spell. Pearson was the best of the English bowlers finishing with 2-14 from her 10 overs.

Viljoen was especially aggressive and her half century, the first of her career, was achieved in the last over of the innings and she had the satisfaction of hitting the winning runs.

"We were talking about our position last night and a couple of the girls said that perhaps our loss to India was a good thing," Willemberg said.

England was never really happy, although they gave themselves a chance with quick wickets at the start of the South African innings. High quality fielding from Charlotte Edwards and Barbara Daniels resulted in sharp chances being held and rocking the South Africans.

But England never had enough runs to play with.

Coach Paul Farbrace said: "We shouldn't be relying solely on our bowlers to defend small targets.

"We kept it tight at the start and fielded well, but any partnership was going to have us up against it, and they had a partnership that we never had.

"I don't mind players getting out to strokes that they practice, but when they are getting out to shots they never practice that is frustrating.

"On these pitches they have to have the courage to play straight. All the players who are getting runs are showing the full face of the bat," he said.

The pitch for the game was a good one and he had no complaints with the pitch.

"It wasn't a 150 pitch, it was a 200-plus.

"It is frustrating, disappointing whatever you want to say," he said.

England has no time to regroup either, it plays India on Monday.

© CricInfo